Elham Shahbazyan ( Blogs)
What are Blogs? Blogs are web logs that are updated on a regular basis by their author. They can contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people's personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be. Blog's give you an opportunity to write content that is unique to you and your practice. While some people are uncomfortable with self promotion, your blog gives you an occasion to interact with your visitors while promoting who you are and what you do. Today blog’s are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers incorporate blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals also created blogs to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. And so on. Section heading ow do you get people to read your blog? One of the ways to attract readers to your blog is to title your postings so that you can get their attention and draw them in to your blog. Take into consideration the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), when you are writing in your blog, so that you can bring in traffic not only to your blog but to your site. A prime example is the December 10th blog entry for sbplasticsurgeon.com entitled “Botox Safety”. Dr. Lowenstein has placed tags such as Botox, Plastic Surgery, Plastic Surgery in Santa Barbara on his blog thereby boosting his SEO presence. Where Did Blogs Come From? The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's. Who the very first blogger was is actually unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal commentaries. The very first blogs were human guided Internet web tours. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content. Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals? Just as having an animated image was once cool, blogging has become the trendy thing to do. That does not mean that it is not beneficial to businesses. Businesses struggling to keep fresh, attractive content on their websites to lure visitors back, have found blogs the answer. Content is a necessity for online businesses, both for purposes of being found by search engines but also because it gives visitors a reason to come back. Blogs & Your Business You need to determine how a blog will benefit your practice. Establish a schedule to keep your blog current and adhere to it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your practice that you may want to showcase by letting you direct the content and having your readers guide you. The Future of Blogs While trendy, "blogging" is the wave of the future. Whether it’s a fad, or proves to be a new way to communicate with existing and potential customers it deserves a serious look at the very least. Section heading What are the differences between the blogs we create for our clients and external blog companies? *Look and feel – you can customize an external blogs to a certain extent. MedNet’s blogs are integrated seamlessly into your site so that it follows the same design as the rest of your site. | *Domain – the external blog company domain is specific to their hosting. This is a means to direct visitor’s to their site with your blog as an afterthought. For example, the domain you would establish with them would be: http://externalcompanydomain.blogspot.com/ The blog you have with MedNet would be:http://yourdomainname.com/blog *Limitations of external blog –There is no real method of tracking the traffic to your blog or a means of submitting your blog to search engines. Remember, with the blog hosted on their site, your would really be tracking the traffic to their main site.MedNet can track the activity to your blog in the same way the traffic is monitored to the rest of your site. MedNet can install a plugin to the blog so that will automatically notify Google to visit your site each time you post to it. *SEO – a blog that has been established on your main site, will give your site more credence with Google. Each post you create adds a page to your site. An external blog that sits outside of your MedNet site loses the benefit of all the new content you are posting.